That is one of the sayings that I remember whenever I read works about energy by people like Amory Lovins or Ralph Nader and find myself agreeing with something they have written. (I rarely agree with either of them, but that does not mean that I always disagree.)

One area where I find myself in philosophical agreement is that I tend to like small-scale engineering and decentralized power. That philosophy aligns well with the underlying ideas behind one of Lovins’s books, titled Small is Profitable.

One of the features that I like most about nuclear fission energy is that the energy density is so many orders of magnitude larger than even the most energy dense chemical energy found in hydrocarbons. A tiny pellet the size of the tip of my pinkie contains as much potential energy as 20 large pickup trucks full of coal – if completely consumed. Energy dense fuel allows small machines that operate for a long time without any dependence on external supplies.

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The Atomic Age is an ongoing project that aims to cultivate critical and reflective intervention regarding nuclear power and weapons. We provide daily news updates on the issues of nuclear energy and weapons, primarily though not exclusively in English and Japanese via RSS, Twitter, and Facebook. If you would like to receive updates in English only, subscribe to this RSS.

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The artwork in the header, titled "JAPAN:Nuclear Power Plant," is copyright artist Tomiyama Taeko.

The photograph in the sidebar, of a nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois, is copyright photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com/)

This website was designed by the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago, and is administered by Masaki Matsumoto, Graduate Student in the Masters of Arts Program for the Social Sciences, the University of Chicago.

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If you have any questions, please contact the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago at 773-702-2715 or japanatchicago@uchicago.edu.